URBAN WATER CHALLENGES in the AMERICAS Grenada
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
308 URBAN WATER CHALLENGES IN THE AMERICAS Grenada St. George’s is the Capital City of Grenada. In 2004, Hurricane Ivan caused widespread damage in the Caribbean, and Grenada suffered serious economic repercussions. Photo credit: ©iStock.com/Flavio Vallenari. IMPACT OF DEVELOPMENT ON WATER SUPPLY AND TREATMENT IN GRENADA 309 “While Grenada has an abundance of freshwater resources, significant challenges such as mountainous terrain, urban development that is clustered within 1km of the coast, and very limited distribution and storage systems has resulted in major areas of urbanisation experiencing periods of water shortage, especially during the dry season months of the year. Further, the lack of a holistic over-arching water management legislation has resulted in inefficient and inappropriate management of the island’s water resources” 310 URBAN WATER CHALLENGES IN THE AMERICAS Impact of Development on Water Supply and Treatment in Grenada Martin S. Forde and Brian Neff Summary Urbanization is not a phenomena limited to developed countries but is also occurring in many developing nations such as Grenada which is located within the Caribbean region. While defining clear-cut urban areas for an island that has a population of approximately 100,000 spread over a very small area (312 km2) may be somewhat challenging, clear evidence of increasing rates of development and clustering of human activities can be identified on the main island of this tri-island country. Two parishes in particular on the main island –St. George’s and St Andrew’s– can be considered as ‘urban’ parishes since about 60 percent of the population lives in these two parishes. Fundamentally, Grenada has an abundance of freshwater resources, however, several challenges currently exist in the management of these resources. As a result, water supply problems exist and prove challenging to resolve. Key challenges associated with managing a growing presence of urban centers, particular in the south of the main island, range from legislative (e.g. no holistic over-arching water management legislation currently exists) to administrative (the sole water provider is also responsible for evaluation of water provisioning services) to difficult geographic realities (e.g., piping water from sources in the North to areas in the South where the demand exists over mountainous terrain). IMPACT OF DEVELOPMENT ON WATER SUPPLY AND TREATMENT IN GRENADA 311 1. Introduction (Figure 1). The country comprises of three main islands: Grenada, Carriacou, and Petite Martinique. Urbanization is not limited to developed countries Grenada is the largest of the three islands (312 km2), but is also occurring in many developing nations followed by Carriacou (34 km2), which is located 24 km including those located within the Caribbean region. to the North East of Grenada, and Petite Martinique Indeed, the Caribbean is one of the most urbanized (2 km2), which lies east of the Northern section of regions in the world with approximately 69% Carriacou. Thus the total area of the island country residing in urban settings. By 2015, the Caribbean is approximately 348 km2 and the total length of the is expected to see an absolute urban population coastline is 121 km. Administratively, the island of increase of 4 million. Grenada is divided into six parishes. Carriacou and It should be noted that the highest rates of Petite Martinique are administratively managed as urbanization are not taking place where the largest the seventh parish. cities are located but rather in previously remote or sparsely populated areas. This may be due to national policies which encourage the development Figure 1. Map of Grenada, Carriacou, and Petite Martinique of certain areas for tourism purposes. Among the many reasons why those who live in Caribbean islands are choosing to live in urban areas is the greater availability of public utilities such as piped water, which may be limited or even unavailable in rural areas. The resulting increased demand on water utilities to supply an ever increasing amount of potable water to these growing urban areas can and does impose challenges on water utility providers as they strive to meet this demand while at the same time not compromising on the continuous availability or quality of water delivered. The Caribbean region consists of a heterogeneous mix of islands that can be differentiated by language, geographies, land geologies, levels of economic development and political history, and culture. Rather than try to present a chapter detailing the impact of urbanization on water resources for the whole Caribbean, this chapter will focus on one English-speaking Caribbean country, Grenada. The issues and challenges experienced by this very small island will obviously not be fully representative of Source: wikipedia.org other much larger islands (e.g., Trinidad, Jamaica), however, much of what is discussed here in this 1.2 Geology and Geography chapter for Grenada will also be seen in many of the other English-speaking small island states located in Grenada is located in the Lesser Antilles, which is the Caribbean. a long arc of volcanic islands in the Caribbean Sea (Figure 1). Of the three main groups of which the 1.1 Location of Grenada Lesser Antilles is sub-divided into, Grenada belongs to the Windward group of islands, which starts with Grenada, located between latitude 11o 59’ and 12o Dominica in the North and then continues down to 20’ North and longitudes 61o 36’ and 61o 48’ West, is Martinique, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, the most southerly island of the Windward Islands and finally Grenada in the South. 312 URBAN WATER CHALLENGES IN THE AMERICAS Grenada is mostly of volcanic origin with 1.3 Climate a mountainous center which quickly descends towards the flatter coastline (Figure 2). The islands of Grenada experiences a semi-tropical climate within Carriacou and Petite Martinique are also of volcanic the Atlantic northeast trade wind belt characterized origin and represent the exposed summits of peaks with an average temperature range from 24˚C to on a single narrow bank of submerged volcanic 30˚C. The average temperature is 28˚C. Temperatures mountains. at sea level are generally high with little diurnal or Approximately 70% of the mountain slopes in spatial variation due to the effect of the adjacent Grenada have a gradient greater than 20˚ which ocean. predisposes terrestrial resources to rapid water Seasonal shifts in the trade winds give rise to runoff and land degradation. The highest peak is two main seasons –a dry season, which runs from Mount St. Catherine at 840 m. Steep mountain January to May, and a wet season which runs from peaks, sharp ridges and deep narrow valleys June to December. Approximately 77% of the annual sloping towards the coastline thus characterize the rainfall occurs in the wet season. topography of the main island of Grenada. Seventy- The marked spatial variation in rainfall five percent of the total land area lies below 305 pattern across Grenada is due to the difference meters while 23.4 percent lies between 305 meters in orthographic elevations (Figure 3). The high and 610 meters and 1.6 percent lies above 610 meters. mountainous areas are cooler compared to the Further, due to the very short 10 km average distance low coastline areas which are warmer. Annual from the mountain peaks to the coast, there is low evapotranspiration has been estimated to vary soil water holding capacity. Clay loams (84.5%), clays from 1000 to 1500 mm. High rainfall intensities are (11.6%) and sandy loams (2.9%) are the main types of common and this leads to severe soil erosion on the soils found in Grenada. The coastline itself is ringed sloping lands. Mountainous areas can experience by extensive coral reefs. an average of about 3,880 mm whereas lower areas along the northern and southern coastline Figure 2. Topography of Grenada can experience a much lesser average of 1,125 mm annually. This gives rise to different climatic zones as depicted in Figure 3. Thus, some parts of the island experience moderately warm temperatures between 20˚C and 22.5˚C, no dry season, and rainfall in excess of 4000 mm whereas other parts of the island are characterized by very warm temperatures over 27.5˚C, a long dry season, and rainfall ranging between 700 mm and 1000 mm. For Carriacou and Petite Martinique, due to their small size and relatively low elevations, both of these islands are significantly drier than Grenada with annual rainfall being only around 1,000 mm. In all three islands, however, extended dry periods and extreme drought conditions during the dry season are not uncommon and indeed over the past decade have become more pronounced. 1.4 Land Use Grenada’s total land area is 31,334 ha. Land use in Source: Photography Center (Montevideo City Hall) Grenada is closely linked to its agrarian history Source: Government of Grenada as a primary commodity producer of sugar in the IMPACT OF DEVELOPMENT ON WATER SUPPLY AND TREATMENT IN GRENADA 313 Figure 3. Climatic zones - Grenada Source: (CEHI, 2006a) 314 URBAN WATER CHALLENGES IN THE AMERICAS recent past to now where more tree crop products • Illegal developments and squatter settlements; such as nutmeg, cocoa, and bananas are cultivated. • Land use conflicts among the agricultural, tour- Additionally, a lot of subsistence farming now takes ism and construction sectors; place with the land that is being used for such • More settlements vulnerable to disasters includ- cultivation moving more and more from the lower ing flooding, land slides and rising sea levels; areas up and onto the mountainsides. As a result, the • Environmental management concerns; amount of forest acreage has steadily declined since • Inappropriate and inadequate land tenure ar- the 1960s to the present. rangements and institutional capacity for land Although it is difficult to determine the exact management; and magnitude of land use change over time in Grenada • Lack of adequate legal and regulatory frame- due to unavailable data, over the past two decades, works.